Two tales of September 29th
When we lost at home to Manchester United 5-3 on September 29th, 2001, it was a genuine tale of two halves. I even created a "Spursometer" for each half, to reflect the different levels of performance by the Spurs team.
In those days, the "Spursometer" was a more subjective affair, formulated by little more than my personal opinions, and the small circle of friends that shared the process with me. That 5-3 defeat was a genuine game of two halves, and the Spurs performance was a fantastic 87% in the first half, but a pathetic 19% for the second. You can do the maths, but that equated to an overall moderate mark of 53%.
This Saturday's game was different. I was asked if I could offer a "Spursometer" for each half, as we attacked in the first, but defended for the vast majority of the second. The answer was "No", and this week's grades reflect an excellent overall performance, where we clearly deserved the very high mark of 80.6% that has been awarded. Harry Redknapp's Spurs matched that level in last year's 4-0 win over Liverpool, and only exceeded it in the 5-0 drubbing of Newcastle in February this year. Harry had high days in the preceding two seasons as well, of course, including that 3-2 win at The Emirates, and the superb 3-1 win at home to Inter. Saturday's result will go a long, long way in winning the fans over to AVB's style.
Jan Vertonghen was man of the match for the fourth consecutive game, and for the fifth time in his seven appearances so far. I cannot remember any individual winning such consistent high acclaim at Spurs in recent years, and that includes the likes of Gareth Bale. Unsurprisingly, "Super Jan" is also player of the month, and our player of the season so far. I'll write more about him in the September review later today.
Even Chris Foy scored the highest mark awarded to any referee so far this season by Spurs fans. Obviously such a super result has an effect, but he was clearly perceived as being very strong in the face of the usual overwhelming pressure put upon officials at Old Trafford.
Ten of our starting line-up were graded better than 7 out of 10, and only Kyle Walker missed out on this accolade.
Thanks to the 300+ people who voted this week.
· See the "Spursometer" in full
Results 29.09- 01.10.12
Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea
Everton 3-1 S'hampton
Fulham 1-2 Man City
Norwich 2-5 Liverpool
Reading 2-2 Newcastle
Stoke 2-0 Swansea
S'derland 1-0 Wigan
Man Utd 2-3 Spurs
A. Villa 1-1 West Brom
QPR 1-2 West Ham
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD PTS
1. Chelsea 6 5 1 0 11-3 8 16
2. Everton 6 4 1 1 12-6 6 13
3. Man Utd 6 4 0 2 14-9 5 12
4. Man City 6 3 3 0 12-8 4 12
5. Spurs 6 3 2 1 11-8 3 11
6. West Brom 6 3 2 1 8-5 3 11
7. West Ham 6 3 2 1 7-5 2 11
8. Arsenal 6 2 3 1 10-4 6 9
9. Fulham 6 3 0 3 13-9 4 9
10. Newcastle 6 2 3 1 8-8 0 9
11. Swansea 6 2 1 3 10-9 1 7
12. Stoke 6 1 4 1 6-5 1 7
13. S'derland 5 1 4 0 5-4 1 7
14. Liverpool 6 1 2 3 9-12 -3 5
15. A. Villa 6 1 2 3 6-10 -4 5
16. Wigan 6 1 1 4 5-11 -6 4
17. S'hampton 6 1 0 5 10-18 -8 3
18. Norwich 6 0 3 3 4-13 -9 3
19. Reading 5 0 2 3 6-11 -5 2
20. QPR 6 0 2 4 4-13 -9 2
